Camilla Lackberg Crime Thrillers 4-6: The Stranger, The Hidden Child, The Drowning

The film was winding backwards again. It sucked him back, faster and faster, until the grainy, jerky images were again what he saw in his mind’s eye. In his memory he ran toward his mother’s outstretched arms.

‘I’d like to have a meeting at nine o’clock. In Mellberg’s office. Can you let the others know?’

‘You look tired; were you out partying last night?’ Annika looked at him over the top of her computer glasses. Patrik smiled, but his smile didn’t reach his weary eyes.

‘If only. No, I sat up half the night reading through reports and documents. And that’s why I need to call a meeting.’

He walked toward his office and looked at his watch. Ten past eight. He was dead tired, and his eyes felt gritty after too much reading and too little sleep. But he had fifty minutes to collect his thoughts; then he would have to tell them about what he’d found.

Fifty minutes went by much too fast. When he entered Mellberg’s office, the whole team was gathered. He had briefed Mellberg by phone on his way into the station this morning, so the chief knew more or less what Patrik was going to say. The others looked mystified.

‘In recent days we’ve put too much emphasis on the investigation of Lillemor Persson’s murder, at the expense of our investigation of the death of Marit Kaspersen.’ Patrik stood next to the flip chart, with his back to Mellberg’s desk, and gazed with a serious expression at his colleagues. No one was missing. Annika had brought pen and paper and was taking notes as usual. Martin sat next to her, his red hair standing on end. His freckles shone against his winter-pale skin, and he waited eagerly for what Patrik had to say. Next to Martin sat Hanna, as cool, calm and collected as they had come to expect from her during the two weeks she’d been working with them. It felt as though she’d been there much longer. Gösta as usual sat slumped in his chair. There was no spark of interest in his eyes; he looked as though he wished he were somewhere else entirely. But that’s how Gösta always looked outside the golf course, Patrik thought in annoyance. Mellberg, on the other hand, had leaned his big body forward as a sign that he was paying close attention. He knew where Patrik was going with this; not even he could ignore the connections that Patrik had uncovered.

‘As you know, at first we regarded Marit’s death as an accident. But the forensic examination and autopsy showed that this was not the case. Someone tied her up, forced an object of some kind into her mouth and down her throat, then poured a large quantity of alcohol into her, which by the way was the cause of death. Then the perpetrator, or perpetrators, placed her body in her car and attempted to make the crash look like an accident. We don’t know much more than that. Nor have we made any great effort to look into anything further, since our more …’ Patrik searched for the right word, ‘media-related investigation has taken up all our energy. Consequently, we’ve allocated our resources in a way which in hindsight I find extremely unfortunate. But it’s no use crying over spilt milk. We’ll simply have to make a greater effort and try to make up for the time we’ve wasted.’

‘You did have a tentative lead –’ Martin began.

Patrik cut him off impatiently. ‘Indeed, I found a possible connection and I followed up on it yesterday.’ He turned round and picked up the stack of papers he had put on Mellberg’s desk.

‘I went to Borås yesterday and met with a colleague named Jan Gradenius. We both attended a conference in Halmstad two years ago. At that time he recounted the details of a case in which he’d been involved, where he suspected that the victim had been murdered but there was insufficient evidence to prove it. I was given access to all the information about the case, and …’ Patrik paused for effect and looked out over the small gathering, ‘and that case happens to have remarkable similarities to the circumstances leading to Marit Kaspersen’s death. That victim also had an absurd amount of alcohol in his body, including his lungs. And this in spite of the fact that the victim never drank alcohol, according to testimony of his next of kin.’

‘Was there the same physical evidence?’ Hanna asked with a frown. ‘Bruises round the mouth, tape residue, et cetera?’

Here Patrik, frustrated, scratched his head. ‘Unfortunately we don’t have that information. This victim, a thirty-one-year-old man by the name of Rasmus Olsson, was judged at the time to have committed suicide by first guzzling a bottle of vodka and then jumping from a bridge. So the investigation was based on that assumption. And they weren’t as exacting with the evidence as they should have been. But there are photos from the autopsy, and I’ve been allowed to see them. From a layman’s point of view it looked as though there were traces of bruises around the wrists and around the mouth, but I sent the photos to Pedersen for his evaluation. Then I sat up all last night studying the material I was given, and there is no doubt in my mind that some sort of connection exists.’

‘So what you’re saying,’ said Gösta in a sceptical tone, ‘is that somebody first murdered this guy in Borås a couple of years ago, and then decided to kill Marit Kaspersen here in Tanumshede. Sounds a bit far-fetched if you ask me. What sort of connection is there between the victims?’

Patrik understood Gösta’s scepticism, but it still irritated him. He was convinced that there was a link.

‘That’s what we have to find out,’ said Patrik. ‘I thought we’d begin by writing down what little we know, then maybe together we can find a way to proceed.’ He took off the cap of a marker and drew a vertical line down the middle of the paper on the flip chart. At the top of one column he wrote ‘Marit’ and on the other he wrote ‘Rasmus’.

‘So, what do we know about the victims? Or rather, what do we know about Marit? I’ll fill in the information about Rasmus Olsson’s death because I’m the only one here who’s had access to the information. But I’ll give you copies of everything later.’

‘Forty-three years old,’ said Martin. ‘Lived with her partner Kerstin, had a daughter aged fifteen, owned her own shop.’

Patrik wrote down everything Martin said, then turned with the pen in his hand, waiting for more.

‘Teetotaller,’ said Gösta, looking alert for a moment.

Patrik pointed at him emphatically and wrote ‘TEETOTALLER’ on the chart. Then he quickly wrote the corresponding information in Rasmus’s column: Thirty-one, single, no children, worked in a pet shop. Teetotaller.

‘Interesting,’ said Mellberg.

‘Anything else?’

‘Born in Norway, divorced, had a falling-out with her ex-husband, conscientious …’ Hanna threw out her hands when she couldn’t come up with more. Patrik wrote down all those points. Marit’s column was getting much longer than Rasmus’s. Patrik added ‘conscientious’ to his column too; he had learned that from the interviews with the man’s next of kin. After thinking for a moment he wrote ‘accident?’ on Marit’s side of the paper, and ‘suicide?’ on Rasmus’s side.

The silence from the others confirmed that there wasn’t much more to add for the moment.

‘We have two apparently very different individuals who were murdered in the same unusual way. They’re different ages, different gender, with different employment, different domestic situations; they don’t seem to have the slightest thing in common except that they both were teetotallers.’

‘Teetotallers,’ said Annika. ‘To me that has almost a religious sound to it. From what I understand, Marit was not particularly involved in any type of formal religion; she simply did not drink alcohol.’

‘Yes, that’s something we have to find out about Rasmus. Since this is the only common denominator we can find, it’s as good a place to start as any. I thought that Martin and I would drive down to Borås and talk with Rasmus’s mother. Then you, Gösta, can take Hanna and talk with both Marit’s partner and her ex-husband. Find out as much as you can about the part of her life having to do with her sobriety. Was there any particular reason for it? Did she belong to any sort of organization? Anything that could give us a lead to what sort of connection she might have had to a single guy in Borås. Where did she live previously, for example. Did she ever live anywhere in the Borås area?’

Gösta gave Hanna a weary look. ‘I suppose we can get that done this morning.’

‘No problem,’ said Hanna, but she looked anything but happy about the task.

‘Is there something wrong?’ said Patrik peevishly.

‘Not at all,’ said Hanna, sounding annoyed. ‘I just think it seems a bit vague. I wish we had more to go on so we don’t end up down a blind alley. I mean, can we actually conclude that a connection exists? Maybe it’s just a coincidence that they died the same way. Since there isn’t any obvious link between the victims, the whole thing seems a bit hazy. But that’s just my opinion.’ She threw out her hands in a way that indicated she thought everyone should agree with her.

Patrik replied curtly with an icy tone to his voice that sounded out of character even to himself. ‘Then I think you ought to keep that opinion to yourself for the time being, and do the job you’ve been assigned.’

He felt the others staring at him in astonishment as he left Mellberg’s office. It wasn’t like him to lose his temper. But Hanna had put her finger on a tender spot. What if his gut feeling was leading him astray?

‘Yes?’ asked Kristina, sipping her tea with a grimace. To Erica’s great surprise she had declared that she no longer drank coffee because of her ‘tender tummy’, patting her stomach with a regretful sigh. As long as Erica had known her, Kristina had been a big coffee drinker, so it would be interesting to see how long this decision would hold.

‘Is this Grandma’s little sweetie? Yes, it is Grandma’s little sweetie, her little cutie-wootie-pie,’ Kristina cooed. Maja stared at Kristina in amazement. Sometimes Erica thought that her daughter already seemed smarter than her mother-in-law, but so far she had managed to refrain from propounding this theory to Patrik. As if Kristina could hear Erica’s thoughts, she turned to her daughter-in-law and skewered her with her gaze.

‘So, how’s it going with this … wedding?’ she said with no trace of baby-talk. She pronounced the word ‘wedding’ with the same distaste as if she were saying ‘dog shit’. At least she didn’t expect to be involved in all the planning.

‘It’s going splendidly. Thanks for asking,’ said Erica, flashing her loveliest smile. Inside she was rattling off the worst, most disgusting swear words she could think up. A sailor would have envied her rich vocabulary.

‘I see,’ said Kristina crossly. Erica sensed that she had asked the question in the hope of getting at least a glimmer of impending disaster.

Anna, who was sitting on the sidelines observing with amusement her sister’s interaction with her mother-in-law, now decided to throw Erica a lifeline. ‘Everything is coming along nicely. We’re even ahead of schedule, aren’t we, Erica?’

Erica nodded with obvious pride. But now all the silent epithets were replaced with a big question mark. What was Anna talking about, ahead of schedule? That was pushing it. But Erica didn’t let her confusion show. She had learned to think of her mother-in-law as a shark. If Kristina got the slightest scent of blood, sooner or later somebody was going to lose an arm. Or a leg.

‘What about the music?’ said Kristina, making a new attempt to sip her tea. Erica took a big gulp of her coal-black coffee and waved her cup about so that the aroma would spread over to Kristina’s side of the table.

‘We’ve hired a band from Fjällbacka. They’re called Garage, and they’re really good.’

‘I see,’ said Kristina with undisguised ill-humour. ‘So it’s going to be some of that pop music that you young folks listen to. Those of us who are a bit older will probably have to leave early.’

Erica could feel Anna kicking her in the shins. She didn’t dare look at her sister for fear of bursting out laughing, even though she didn’t find the situation that funny.

‘Well, I hope at least you’re thinking about the guest list. I couldn’t possibly attend unless Aunt Göta and Aunt Ruth are invited too.’

‘Really?’ said Anna innocently. ‘Patrik must be very close to them. Did he spend a lot of time with his aunts when he was growing up?’

Kristina hadn’t expected that topic to prompt such an insidious attack. ‘Well, no, I can’t say that –’

Anna interrupted her, speaking in the same innocent voice. ‘When was the last time Patrik saw them? I can’t recall him ever mentioning his aunts.’

With a stern frown Kristina was forced to retreat. ‘I suppose it was a while ago. Patrik was about … ten, as I recall.’